In­di­ana seek­ing work requirements for Med­i­caid ben­e­fi­cia­ries

In­di­ana is join­ing a grow­ing list of states seek­ing to add a work re­quire­ment for Med­i­caid ben­e­fi­cia­ries.

The state last week posted an amend­ment to its pend­ing re­quest to re­new its Med­i­caid ex­pan­sion model, known as Healthy In­di­ana Plan 2.0, for three more years.

The state wants to re­quire all able-bod­ied HIP par­tic­i­pants to ei­ther work an av­er­age 20 hours per week; be en­rolled in full-time or part-time ed­u­ca­tion; or par­tic­i­pate in a job search and train­ing pro­gram in In­di­ana. The state is ac­cept­ing com­ments on the re­quest un­til June 23.

Maine an­nounced in April that it would ask per­mis­sion to over­haul its Med­i­caid pro­gram and in­clude a work re­quire­ment. Ken­tucky has al­ready sub­mit­ted its sim­i­lar re­quest, and Ari­zona has an­nounced plans to sub­mit one as well. Florida and Ohio law­mak­ers are draft­ing leg­is­la­tion to or­der their state health de­part­ments to seek sim­i­lar waivers that would in­clude work re­quire­ment pro­vi­sions.